While your website can drive quite a good amount of traffic, it doesn’t mean it receives the same number of conversions. The thing is that in order to convert the leads, any website should be optimized for engagement and clicks. One thing is to get people to visit your web page, another – making them stay. Lucky for you, there are a number of great strategies to increase CRO and get new clients on board.
Definition of CRO
CRO stands for conversion rate optimization and is a go-to strategy in digital marketing that aims to improve customer on-site journey and grow conversions. Effective CRO strategies can bring companies a massive ROI growth of up to 200%.
Over 90% of people research products online before moving to complete a purchase, so the way a website is implemented and designed plays a significant role in terms of the brand’s bottom line. Regardless of the initial goal you pursue, be it newsletter sign-up, bonus claim, or product buying, the layout of the site should be executed to encourage people to complete those actions.
Hence, a good part of CRO is conducting a thorough analysis of customer behavior to identify any issues that can be a reason potential clients are set off track.
15 Effective Tips to Enhance Your CRO
We have gathered some great tips to optimize your brand’s website and start converting more leads.
Make sure to have compelling CTAs
There are several things to consider when writing a CTA that encourages people to take the desired action:
- Choose action verbs. Try playing with verbs and instead of a basic “submit” use “receive your free guide”, “claim your checklist”, “grab your sample”, etc. Action verbs allow you to evoke emotions and win their interest.
- Make it personal. Personalized calls to action are said to increase conversion and bring more customers on board. Try with different CTAs for potential leads and unique visitors to grab their attention.
- Test until it works. If you have several CTA options in mind, test them all out and see which one works best. A/B testing allows you to try different CTAs and headlines, providing you valuable metrics to choose those that collect more clicks and encourage engagement.
- Pair CTA and the content. A CTA should follow each piece of the website content, meaning every article, landing page, or existing interactive materials should have further instruction for site visitors on what to do next. CTAs serve as ideal guidelines across your website.
Give preference to buttons rather than links
CTAs in the form of buttons have proved effective and bring more results than links. Buttons are more noticeable and interactive, generating 50% more clicks than regular links. Placing such CTAs throughout the website content will produce higher returns and encourage site visitors to click and explore more.
A great example is Brafton, a content marketing agency, that used buttons as CTAs in their customer’s article template, which have increased the latter’s revenue by almost 90% in several months.
Experiment with Button Colors. They matter.
You might have heard that different colors evoke various emotions and moods. Same thing with CTA buttons and their colors with the below examples being a direct confirmation of the above:
- A software company (SAP) found out that orange-colored CTAs brought a 32% growth in conversion.
- Performance, a company specializing in marketing automation, noticed a better conversion after they set red as the primary color for their CTAs.
- Helzberg Diamonds received a 26% boost in CTA clicks after they have added an arrow to their button.
- Hubspot tested different colors and discovered that red-colored buttons encourage visitors to click more often.
Experiment with different colors and select the most complementary ones, but don’t overdo it. CTA buttons should encourage and not divert customers.
Write concise and sound compelling
When you create articles and blog posts, try to minimize distracting elements, like modifiers, adverbs and too many jokes. Your main goal is to make people stay on your website and not to confuse them. The content you produce should match the customer preference and their reading level.
You need to know and understand your company’s buyer persona, what they like, what they are looking for, and how you can provide them with the right solution. If you foster a good connection with your target audience, it will help you gain trust and win over more clients.
Don’t hesitate to go long-form
According to statistics, longer landing pages bring in more leads than the short ones. As long as you cover all the client’s questions and address their pain points, the longer page will justify itself. But again, always test it out.
With so many testing tools on the market, you can try providing your visitors with several options of a landing page, with one being shorter and another one significantly longer, and see which one produces leads and better engagement.
Get rid of unneeded links
Another distraction that is often left unnoticed includes links. You need to ensure that all the links that exist on the website are relevant and working. Determine what purpose every link serves, whether they provide value and help to gain more trust.
Remove those links that are distracting and might lead customers away from your website. You might only want to use some links that help you provide more explicit information on a particular subject and are trustworthy and safe to click on.
Invest time in creating headlines
They say a headline stands for 80 cents from every dollar you spend, meaning that quality headlines are a must. They are an integral
Invest your time in writing strong and relevant headlines, and check the below tips to get you started:
- Advantage + Advantage. Drive better traffic. Get more Leads.
- Problem + Solution. No Conversion? Here are 10 tips to increase ROI.
- Achieve Something + Time Period. Get a 100% Increase in Conversion in 30 days.
All the above headlines address customer pain points and emphasize numbers, making it clear what problem will be solved, how many ways included, or how much time needed to get results.
Use High-Class Images
All the images you use on the website should enhance the words you so deliberately choose and complement the overall experience. The way the website looks and feels matters so invest some time in choosing the right pictures.
Include images with people if you want to humanize the brand and always include photos of the product if you are selling one. If you want to tell more about the company and the people who work in it, post a photo of the entire team. It helps customers to better connect with the brand. Stock photos are helpful, but they are not always compelling enough to make people stay.
Include Reviews & Testimonials
Did you know that more than 90% of people decide whether to buy an item based on the reviews they find online? Nowadays, social proof is one of the most powerful motivations for completing a purchase. It assures people and eliminates the risk of buying the wrong thing. Besides, reviews help to win trust and credibility.
Add customer reviews on the main website page, showcasing what other people say about your brand. It is always better to include them on the original site rather than make customers surf the internet and find them elsewhere.
Play with Pop-Ups
While opinions vary when it comes to including pop-ups, there are a few efficient ways of adding them to the website and getting a better conversion:
- Delay the pop-up appearance. Give people time to explore the site with no distractions and place a 30-45 seconds’ delay before showing a pop-up.
- Set the pop-up to appear one time only for every visitor.
- Make a “close” tab visible to let people close it if they want.
Feature several various offers in a pop-up and define the one that works best.
Incorporate Video Content
Videos are leading the positions when it comes to interactive content. They are fun, easy to watch and successfully engage customers with the brand. Videos can include tutorials, product descriptions, or the latest company updates. They say people spend 80% more on those sites that feature videos and are 65% more likely to complete a purchase after watching a product review.
Your aim is to generate content that sticks to the customers, being engaging and memorable. Videos are, so make use of them.
Don’t place too many Form Fields
Customer experience with your brand should be pleasant and easy. If you ask them to fill out several forms, you might distract them from exploring what you offer and turn them away from the website.
Include one form to fill out, asking for the name and email address. You don’t need their social security number, the surname of their grandparents, and the name of their childhood pet. The easier the better. Besides, many companies practice “guest checkouts” and don’t force site visitors to create an account with them. It helps to make things quicker and converts far more people.
Focus on the prospects
Concentrate on your customers and tell them what they get. Replace “our product is the best”, with “you will get a perfect solution for your problem”. Don’t mention what you give to people, rather tell them what they receive if they buy from you or order your services. You are not creating a website to praise the brand, you are designing it to resonate with visitors and persuade them to stay with you.
Align Advertisements with Your Landing Page
If you’ve set PPC advertisements around the Internet, you need to ensure that they promise the same things that your landing page provides. Don’t say something that you don’t actually mean or cannot give people when they eventually visit your website.
Ensure to come up with accurate expectations and make people stay. You don’t want high bounce rates and a lack of conversion, so align your advertisements with the information on your website.
Pair CRO and SEO
While CRO works on converting customers, SEO makes them visit the website in the first place. That is why a SEO campaign should be always paired with a strategy towards CRO.
SEO guides visitors at the beginning of the marketing funnel while CRO leads them further. SEO is great at determining where your potential clients are and showcasing your products to them. If used together, SEO and CRO will allow you to reap more benefits and get more qualified leads.
Conclusion
Optimizing your website is not a one-time thing. You should constantly review the data you provide to ensure it is relevant and timely. Customers should have the very best experience from the moment they get on your website to the very last minute of their buyer’s journey.
Take time to create the right CTAs, concise and interactive content, remove any distractions or unnecessary things that might set clients off track. Make it simple yet compelling and always focus on potential prospects to get the very best outcome out of your CRO strategy.